Two Dark Ladies of the Sonnets

George Bernard Shaw put Shakespeare on stage in his play The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, and so did Philip Hagemann in his opera of the same name. Murray Rosenthal arranged the lyrics for the opera and – incidentally – became vice-chair of the Shaw Society along the way.

He comes from New York with three Tony Awards from Broadway for production to his credit, as well as a distinguished earlier career in dentistry that taught him more about the vocal cords more vital for stage performance than you probably want to know. Murray directs the opera, with Paul Beech directing the play.

Paul has a passion for both Shakespeare and Shaw, fostered by fine productions of all of Shakespeare’s and many of Shaw’s plays. Even before he became a professional actor, he directed three Shakespeare favourites – The Comedy of Errors, King John and Titus Andronicus, the latter with a cast of over 100 enthusiastic students. His major professional Shakespeare performance was as King Lear in a Jonathan Miller production of the play, and among his Shaw performances was as The Emperor in Androcles and the Lion.